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Friday, July 15, 2011

We took Laura to see her first movie today. I'm not sure how much she truly enjoyed the movie experience, but I L-O-V-E-D, loved, LOVED the newest Winnie the Pooh!

I can't remember the last time I was so excited to see a movie that I trudged out to the theatre on opening day. Let's keep in mind, also, that I go to the movies maybe once a year. So Winnie the Pooh was a big deal for me.

I wasn't actually all that into going to the newest Pooh movie until just this week, when I took the time to watch some trailers. The trailers had me in stitches, and I was so impressed with the hand-drawn animation that I was dead-set on seeing the movie as soon as possible.

I met Laura (with my mother-in-law) at the theatre this afternoon for a 5:05 showing. We settled into our seats and plied Laura with snacks. From the opening sequence, I was laughing, smiling, and having a great time. Which is mpressive, since I had a toddler crawling all over me the entire time.

I was really impressed with the clever animation, which highlighted letters and words in the font I remember so fondly from my childhood copies of the books. Pooh and his friends literally walk across pages and paragraphs, as the narrator reads the words shown on the screen. So simple, but it really made the connection between the original books and the animated feature.

At one point, a little girl next to us screamed with fright when the Backson loomed out of the woods. But she was laughing hysterically soon after. The movie is very appropriately rated G. It was also the perfect length for a family outing. Just as I was thinking "gee, now would be a great time to wrap this up so my toddler can let out some of her energy on something other than me," the movie ended! In a most satisfying manner! With no creepy woosels or heffulumps or anything!

My favorite part was the... everything. Laura's favorite part was the sequence with Pooh swimming through the honey. Seriously. And I know this because she was suddenly completely still, snack free, and staring with rapt attention at the screen for the entire scene. And once that part ended, Laura was back to her snacking, flailing ways. Which was perfectly fine! I expected nothing less, taking an eighteen-month-old to the movies!

If you are thinking of seeing Winnie the Pooh, please do! And if you were thinking you'd see HP7 instead, see both! WtP is definitely worth the movie ticket!